I support the Studer recommendations. On this site you can get substantial Studer upgrades as well as reference master tapes:
www.mastertapsoundlab.com
www.mastertapsoundlab.com
Hello Sam,
Too bad i'm in Holland. I just refurbished a Revox A77 after a couple of Nagra machines.
I was surprised to find that the sound of the A77 is quite exeptional. A pity it has (just like the B77) a rather "poor" tape handling. Teac has fine machines. I also have the A6100 2-track and it will not leave me. It has this certain "character" and plays back 2 and 4-track tapes. Hey hey, this one is on the bench now to get rebuild. Tascam are darn fine machines but I never liked the plastics
But .. many models to choose from and loads of spares available. There are actually so many machines that the question that rises is: How much do I want to spent on a machine ? And what about looks ? As a european I would say Studer because it has the best transport with a very open sound. Just a professional machine .. one that will last and looks professional.
Personally I prefer the battery machines like the Uher 4200 report monitor, the Nagra IV-S, but above all my Stellavox SP8. Together with the ABR it is for sure my holy grail.
Resume: If you can get your hands on a superb A77 2-track (either speed model) for a low price .. go for it as it is always handy to have one "standing around". I know it doesn't have the looks, but it has the sound You can also get your hands on the Otari mx5050, but avoid the first series and you must like the looks. Pioneer RT-909 is a very wanted machine. Sounds good and looks, uhmm, very shiny. What about Tandberg ?
their TD20(a) is a fabulous sounding machine. But I think still at a price.
Technics RS-1500 or 1800 are sweets if the transport is in good condition. They for sure have the looks.
You have so many machines to choose from
Too bad i'm in Holland. I just refurbished a Revox A77 after a couple of Nagra machines.
I was surprised to find that the sound of the A77 is quite exeptional. A pity it has (just like the B77) a rather "poor" tape handling. Teac has fine machines. I also have the A6100 2-track and it will not leave me. It has this certain "character" and plays back 2 and 4-track tapes. Hey hey, this one is on the bench now to get rebuild. Tascam are darn fine machines but I never liked the plastics
But .. many models to choose from and loads of spares available. There are actually so many machines that the question that rises is: How much do I want to spent on a machine ? And what about looks ? As a european I would say Studer because it has the best transport with a very open sound. Just a professional machine .. one that will last and looks professional.Personally I prefer the battery machines like the Uher 4200 report monitor, the Nagra IV-S, but above all my Stellavox SP8. Together with the ABR it is for sure my holy grail.
Resume: If you can get your hands on a superb A77 2-track (either speed model) for a low price .. go for it as it is always handy to have one "standing around". I know it doesn't have the looks, but it has the sound
You can also get your hands on the Otari mx5050, but avoid the first series and you must like the looks. Pioneer RT-909 is a very wanted machine. Sounds good and looks, uhmm, very shiny. What about Tandberg ?their TD20(a) is a fabulous sounding machine. But I think still at a price.
Technics RS-1500 or 1800 are sweets if the transport is in good condition. They for sure have the looks.
You have so many machines to choose from
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Hello Sam,
Too bad i'm in Holland. I just refurbished a Revox A77 after a couple of Nagra machines.
I was surprised to find that the sound of the A77 is quite exeptional. A pity it has (just like the B77) a rather "poor" tape handling. Teac has fine machines. I also have the A6100 2-track and it will not leave me. It has this certain "character" and plays back 2 and 4-track tapes. Hey hey, this one is on the bench now to get rebuild. Tascam are darn fine machines but I never liked the plastics
Personally I prefer the battery machines like the Uher 4200 report monitor, the Nagra IV-S, but above all my Stellavox SP8. Together with the ABR it is for sure my holy grail.
Resume: If you can get your hands on a superb A77 2-track (either speed model) for a low price .. go for it as it is always handy to have one "standing around". I know it doesn't have the looks, but it has the sound
their TD20(a) is a fabulous sounding machine. But I think still at a price.
Technics RS-1500 or 1800 are sweets if the transport is in good condition. They for sure have the looks.
You have so many machines to choose from
I agree, there are so many r-2-r to choose from. The best ever IMHO was the big green machine: the EMI BTR2. Developed and built by EMI for the BBC. It came in two versions - 'Portable' in two cases (but you've got to be a strong man) and Console. I have two large decks the AKAI GX-635D and a ReVox A77 MKIII. Both in very good condition and very recently the subject on this forum on overhaul. Then I have three UHER machines: 4200 Report, with its two VU meters and rotary speed knob, 4000 Report-L with its long 2" wide across-the-lid window, gear change gate and brushed alloy keys, and my first Uher 4000 Report bought new in 1959 (still going strong) with its gear change gate, small window in the lid and grey plastic keys.
I used to record live Opera - which was a challenge on those machines - and involved recording at 3 3/4" all productions then editing the whole thing together. Then came the AKAI GX-635D and recording Live Opera was a doddle - one reel 10 1/2" NAB at 7 1/2" one direction for first half, fast forward to the end, Reverse, Record back to the green leader for the second half. I only used two mics suspended over the front-of-stage / Orchestra pit and they are still my favourites - a pair of ElectroVoice RE20's. SOmetimes I used my pair of RE55's. Then came the Digital era. DAT tapes - tiny compared to a NAB! The recording technique remained the same microphone-wise but there were no timing, reversing tapes, editing any more. Now I've gone totally digital. No moving parts. ZOOM R-16 fed from my Calrec Soundfield SPS422 4 capsule stereo Mcrophone. The recordings from the R-16 are sent digitally through light-pipe into the Studio computer via LynxStudio LynxTWO-A cards and the recordings then edited using Nuendo4. Quite a journey from Uher Report to ZOOM R-16 digital!
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Michael (UK)
The most important consideration in deciding which tape recorder is the availability of spare parts, such as heads, brake bands, rollers, shafts and so on. Studer/Revox and Teac seem to be the only brands for which NOS parts are still sourced. While Studer warehouses are practically empty, there are still many NOS parts available from sellers online. Another solution might be to buy two identical recorders and keep one as a donor, but then think about investing in two Technics RS1500s and you will get my point.
Another consideration is the overall reliability over time. From my own experience I can attest to durability and simple maintenance of Studer and Revox and would recommend them as the first choice (I am not affiliated with the manufacturer), although there are better sounding recorders out there (Technics might easily be the best around).
Finally, unless the previous or existing tape library commands a specific format, I would recommend a 2-track tape recorder with 9,5/19 cm/s speeds for home use.
Another consideration is the overall reliability over time. From my own experience I can attest to durability and simple maintenance of Studer and Revox and would recommend them as the first choice (I am not affiliated with the manufacturer), although there are better sounding recorders out there (Technics might easily be the best around).
Finally, unless the previous or existing tape library commands a specific format, I would recommend a 2-track tape recorder with 9,5/19 cm/s speeds for home use.
I have two B67's that I bought as cheap non-working units to repair and then put all new tube record/play electronics in. One had actually been modded to run in reverse as an effects machine (3.75-7.5-15 ips) and the other (7.5-15-30 ips) had a non-functioning reel turntable. I actually have nearly all the parts needed to do the tube conversion for both, but that is still behind several other projects priority-wise.
I recapped all the motors and figured out how to undo the reverse playback mode and now had two playback machines. The reverser was originally a mono machine and the other had been taken out of a console without its meter assembly.
Unfortunately, after a little while, the machine which was originally the reverse playback machine would stop playing after a couple seconds. I eventually traced the problem down to another cap failure, this time a tantalum in the takeup reel assembly, and now it's once again fixed.
I had also bought a somewhat used butterfly head assembly that I plan to relap and use for the 7.5 - 30 ips machine. It occurred to me that since it used a mono erase head, it might be possible to experiment with the original spare mono erase head as an x-type record bias head positioned with a short solenoid throw. However, this would really only make sense at 3 3/4 ips, and I want to preserve this machine's 30 ips capability. Actually, having studied and worked on the capstan drive assemblies of these machines, I know how to add a fourth speed fairly simply in the electronics. Problem is that there is no space on the switch panel for a fourth speed interlocking switch, but perhaps I could borrow a button from the left side of the panel that does something I don't care about to select low/high speed capability.
An interesting idea, but definitely would be much more work than it's worth.
One mod I performed on the head stack was to add a third ruby guide at the tape input to the head stack. For whatever reason, Studer had tapped out a hole for the third guide but didn't install it in their machines, as far as I could tell. Adding this guide seemed to help tracing stability somewhat.
However, with all this, I also came to realize that Studer was always fiddling with the electronics design for the B67 - there are documented for the B67 two significantly different versions of several of the internal PCBs.
I recapped all the motors and figured out how to undo the reverse playback mode and now had two playback machines. The reverser was originally a mono machine and the other had been taken out of a console without its meter assembly.
Unfortunately, after a little while, the machine which was originally the reverse playback machine would stop playing after a couple seconds. I eventually traced the problem down to another cap failure, this time a tantalum in the takeup reel assembly, and now it's once again fixed.
I had also bought a somewhat used butterfly head assembly that I plan to relap and use for the 7.5 - 30 ips machine. It occurred to me that since it used a mono erase head, it might be possible to experiment with the original spare mono erase head as an x-type record bias head positioned with a short solenoid throw. However, this would really only make sense at 3 3/4 ips, and I want to preserve this machine's 30 ips capability. Actually, having studied and worked on the capstan drive assemblies of these machines, I know how to add a fourth speed fairly simply in the electronics. Problem is that there is no space on the switch panel for a fourth speed interlocking switch, but perhaps I could borrow a button from the left side of the panel that does something I don't care about to select low/high speed capability.
An interesting idea, but definitely would be much more work than it's worth.
One mod I performed on the head stack was to add a third ruby guide at the tape input to the head stack. For whatever reason, Studer had tapped out a hole for the third guide but didn't install it in their machines, as far as I could tell. Adding this guide seemed to help tracing stability somewhat.
However, with all this, I also came to realize that Studer was always fiddling with the electronics design for the B67 - there are documented for the B67 two significantly different versions of several of the internal PCBs.
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